Do true fans leave early? (Old Trafford empties at 3-1!)

You've won a million titles over the last twenty years - purchase bigger and better players when you're previous stars retire, move on or want out.

You turn-up with 76,000 every week to watch your side beat Stoke, Wigan or Fulham to name a few and you walk out feeling so good you are part of something special.

So when your team loses to it's nearest rivals by a thumping 6-1 - although when you let it was just 3-1, are you a real fan.

Manchester United fans had a tough day and left early?

Few Victory fans left early on Saturday, and who could have blamed them if they had.

True fans: Victory or United?

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Man Utd: He's not Nicky Carle

Man United lost Ronaldo, the freak goal-scoring machine. Let's face it, United aren't a one man team, but without him and his goals, no championships and no Euro finals in the last three years in my view.

So they've spent their money on who.

Michael Owen...and even he was free! Bet the fans can't wait to see Owen in that new Rugby League shirt. Channel Nine Commentators will be shouting that it's further proof about their great game!

God love them. Owen will score for United, even I could, but he won't win them a title or European title.

I'll guess there will be further buys but is it possible we could see United outside the four.

Who next Mark Viduka, surely not. But he is free!

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Little Men v Big Boys

When Manchester United play my team Celtic we are unable to get the ball.

And when Man Utd play Barcelona they are unable to get the ball.

Now given the difference in budgets between Celtic and Man United this is understandable.

But for United to be outclassed as they were this morning in the biggest game of club football, the European Champions League Final, against Barcelona..well it was embarrasing for any United fan...and aren't there heaps of them!


Here's why Fergie lost.

Well United are a great team and can keep the ball forever against Celtic, Stoke, Middlesboro, Newcastle or even Aston Villa...but they rely heavily on counter-attack football, their individual stars and they have many, against top top sides, and in Ronaldo they have a one man goal machine. And he didn't score.

Barcelona won for the little people. Iniesta, Messi not a giant among them showing the world that anyone, of any size can control a game of football at the highest level.

United met their match, as they did in the Semi last year. At Old Trafford United couldn't get the ball, but Paul Scholes lashed one home. Barca despite dominating never scored. But the difference in class was seen that day.

Why United with Ronaldo, Rooney, Giggs, Anderson, Ferdinand, Evra, Tevez, and co can't keep the ball says a lot about Barcelona, their passing and more importantly their movement.

Today Barcelona apart from the first ten minutes completely controlled the game and surely should have won by more, and if Thierry Henry or Iniesta had scored early in the second half the game won have been won.

Of course Aussie fans will be sick to death of hearing from Craig Foster about this co-operative club from Barcelona, but no more sick than the rest of the football community are at hearing how wonderful Man United are when they beat West Brom, Everton, Wigan or the like.

This was a great game. Two teams at the top of their game, United unbeaten in 25 yet at the highest level of the game, yet they were left wilting.

Imagine going to a final and producing like that. Fergie..surely it's your fault. Few Man United fans can accept such a debacle or can they.

Gus Hiddink showed the way to get close to Barca but to their credit United played the United way...today it was Barcelona who set the standard for football.

Let's see how many emails I get from United fans today telling me how wonderful they are...suspect the phone lines will be quiet for awhile.

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Football gone mad? Viduka's wage and United THUMPED:)

Mark Viduka was asking for a salary which would equate to half the Middlesborough gate income when he was looking to extend his contract two years ago.

Wouldn't it be great if the clubs were restricted by their match-day crowd revenues to some extent. Then we may see more balanced leagues across the world, not-unlike the A-League, AFL and NRL.

For now just rejoice that the World's Second Richest Club Man United, got thumped 4-1 by Liverpool at home. It just felt good to see the team that is so good, purely because it can buy the best in the world, getting thumped.

Steve Gibson, Chairman of English Premier League club Middlesborough has explained the relationship of his club's match-day gate income with payments to players. Very little, it seems. Referring to the salaray request by the club's former striker Mark Viduka, Gibson claimed the player's agent had said Viduka would go to the highest bidder. "Mark Viduka is 32 on his next birthday and he was asking for a three-year contract and asking for a figure which, over a year, would equate to over half of our gate income," Gibson said. Viduka now plays for Newcastle.

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Rejoice Manchester belongs to City...finally.

Fox Sports Simon Hill is a big Man City fan. Most of the World follow, it seems, Manchester United. Why? Because they win!

I've two brothers who are Season Ticket holders at Old Trafford. Win, win and win again. Buy the best, despair if their team doesn't win every game and every tournament. And I'm a paid up member of ABU FC. (Anyone But United)

Do United fans care about Wigan, West Ham or Wolves...or even Man City. They treat the Derby as quaint usually a distraction whilst they wait to take on Chelsea or Barcelona or the like.

Well not anymore...and forgive me for taking a sudden increased interest in the English Premiership.

Manchester people follow City, so the legend goes. They come from all over England, Ireland, Scotland, America and Asia to watch Manchester United.

For the record my brothers travel the 2 hours from Nottingham every home game to watch the "Red Devils," and then again if there is midweek European game on.

And United buy the best, fans can't remember when the team got relegated in 1970's and probably would have stopped going anyway. Because United's success like Chelsea's is built on winning and cash and lots of it.

But suddenly Man City have been turned Arab. And bought Robinho. And the best news for City fans is they "outbid United for Dimitri Berbatov." I love the humour in that...for City fans.

How good is that?

City fans are renowned for their humour. It comes from being long-time losers. There's a lot of that mentality in England, as only two or three clubs win.

Well I can't wait to see who City buy next year. I can't wait to see how Alex Ferguson deals with the City threat.

Why one of the top four might come fifth. Clearly this league needs more daft billionaires.

But from a business point of view, buying Manchester City makes so much more sense than buying Chelsea, Liverpool, Newcastle, West Ham or Espanyol. The name of Manchester is synonymous with United and football.

The guys from the desert have got the name of Manchester locked up. How long before we foreigners start buying our City shirts across the World.

I'm up for it.

A big blue shirt with Christiano Ronaldo's name on the back, now that would make me laugh...I'd almost ring my brothers for that one:)

Come on City let's knock United out of the top four...for Simon's sake!

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South Melbourne fans coming to Canberra

And thirty loyal fans are making the journey. Paul Mavroudis writes a South Melbourne FC blog and he sent the pre-match travel report which you can read below.

These were the teams when South Melbourne and Man Utd met in the World Club Championships in Rio in 2001. Just seven years later the furthest they travel is Canberra. This week they play the AIS on Sunday in Canberra!

Man Utd: Van Der Gouw, P Neville, Higginbottom, Berg, Wallwork, Cruyff, Wilson, Greening, Fortune, Solskjaer, Cole. Subs: Bosnich, Rachubka, G Neville, Irwin, Silvestre, Stam, Beckham, Butt, Giggs, Yorke, Keane.

South Melbourne: Jones, Iosifidis, De Amicis, Blatsis, Clarkson, Panopoulos, Trimboli, Curcija, Anastasiadis, Lozanovski, Liparoti. Subs: Udvaracz, Roche, Coveny, Alagich, Cuzzupe, Magnacca, Goutzoulis, Tsekinis, Psonis, Mustafa, Culibrk.


Paul wrote:

The game is on Sunday. We'll be leaving 10pm Saturday night, about 30 of us, and some more travelling up in their own cars. We're going to have a couple of stops on the way. We were hoping to be able to have lunch at the Hellenic club, but their dress code would probably exclude a whole bunch of blokes (and one brave lady) almost exclusively attired in football supporters gear. I hope we can find a way to get around that, seems like a good venue.

So the plan is get to Canberra sometime in the morning, see some of the sights, embassies and other places more juvenile minds like to go. Maybe have a bbq in lieu of a more formal lunch, then catch the game, then basically straight back with hopefully a radio broadcast of the Socceroos-China game.

A lot of bus companies when they found out we were from a soccer club/South Melbourne didn't want to deal with us or bumped up the prices significantly.

So we're having to take a self drive option which means limited sinking of piss for those who like to do so.

Personally as a non-drinker, I'm glad that the bus won't be an esky on wheels. It should be an absolute belter of a trip.

I haven't been interstate in about 9 years, and never been to Canberra!

There's a dvd player on the bus so we'll be playing some highlights of the previous two years and some early to mid 1990s stuff, real Australian top flight golden era stuff, the 91 GF, the clash of the titans, Heidelberg's many beltings at our hands...

Will be even better if we can manage to sneak a point of the game :)

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Podcast: All the Manchester United terrace chants!

On the poddie this week, download here

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Interviews with:
Coerver Coaching Alfred Galustian
1. How it all started
2. Who Alfred has coached and worked with, and his views on Australian football
Adelaide United's Shaun Ontong
Manchester United fan Brendan Flanagan and those terrace chants
Arif's big issue
All the A-League predictions
Women's football coming to the ABC, looks like it.

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